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Will Smith at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival (Picture: Festival de Cannes)

Will Smith has flagged the lack of black characters during the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, telling festival organisers during the final press conferences that ‘a couple black folks [on screen] next year wouldn’t hurt’.

This year’s festival was notable for it’s complete lack of minority voices, and his comments came at the tail end of a discussion held between the female jury members including Jessica Chastain and Maren Ade, in which they claimed that they were ‘disturbed’ by how the films they watched during the competition viewed female characters and how they wanted ‘the film industry to reflect modern society – we’re missing a lot of stories, not just female characters’.

The 2017 Cannes Film Festival jury (Picture: Getty Images)

‘How the world views women from the female characters I saw represented [on screen], it was quite disturbing to me,’ said Chastain.

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‘There were some exceptions but for the most part I was surprised at the representation of female characters on screen in these films, and I hope when we include more female storytellers we will have more females that I recognise from my own day to day life… women who don’t just react to the men around them.’

Jury member Jessica Chastain (Picture: Getty Images)

French actress Agnès Jaoui also discussed the importance of the Bechdel Test, and admitted that ‘few movies pass the test’ while Ade added: ‘It’s the first time the female director gets Best Director so for me, I really have to say I am always so happy meeting other female directors just because I found out after a while of always being surrounded by men, especially men doing this job, the impression comes up that it’s not the right job for a woman but that’s completely wrong.’

She added: ‘We all want to the film industry to reflect modern society – we’re missing a lot of stories, not just female characters.’